A Call To The Remnant

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Archive for the ‘the remnant’ Category

You cannot run forward while you’re looking back

Posted by appolus on March 2, 2018

God has made many promises to His people yet much of Christendom has failed to possess the promises of Christ which are yes and amen. The failure is our part for God is faithful to those who are diligent in His pursuit. We want to partake of the glories but we do not want to partake in the humiliations. We want abundant life in Christ but we are not willing to take up our cross and die. We desire the feast but we have no stomach for the fasting.

The Lord inhabits the praises of His people. We praise God with our lives, we praise God with our desire to follow Him. We praise God when we can glorify Him even when we are hungry, when we are naked, when we walk through the valley’s and walk through the fires and the floods. God is looking for a people to inhabit all the days of their lives.

Imagine escaping Egypt, coming through the desert, crossing the Jordan river and even seeing the walls of Jericho fall but then rather than possessing the land you fall back into the desert and then wake up one day and find yourself back in Egypt. The gifts and the promises are to be possessed. Unless we can leave Egypt behind us we can never push on and possess all that God has for us. You cannot run forward while you are looking back.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »

The strings of my heart.

Posted by appolus on March 2, 2018

Wind of the Spirit play the strings of my heart
Discover who I am, each and every part
I stand before you my heavenly King
You look at me and see everything

Nothing hidden, no secrets just you and me
With eyes ablaze that can truly see
Your Blood and your love they cover my sin
And with coals of fire I am cleansed from within

There is fire in your Blood that flows from the cross
And love from above that’s more than all loss
My thoughts of these things are so very few
When I consider that now I am found in you

The strings of my heart play a glorious song
As I am swept up in a heavenly throng
The hand of My God plays a sweet melody
My heart’s in Your hand and forever shall be.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »

Lay me down

Posted by appolus on February 27, 2018

Lay me down in a troubled land
I shall ever rest in the palm of your hand
My soul is refreshed by the waters of your Life
You are the Husband and the Body is your wife

I shall shout for joy from the depths of my soul
For I was broken and you made me whole
You lifted me up when I was down
It’s in Your love that I now abound

I have never hungered in a famined land
Even when I fall you make me stand
Your Living waters refresh my soul
You have replaced what my enemy stole

My leaf has not withered even in the drought
And from the mountain-tops you shall hear me shout
Glory hallelujah to the King of all the nations
I stand here not on sand but on your firm foundation

I have known your favor and Your grace rescues me
I an surrounded on every side like the deepest sea
The radiance of your beauty lights up my whole world
And Your banner over me is simply love unfurled

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

Even in a dry and thirsty land

Posted by appolus on February 27, 2018

I have shouted for joy, the radiance of His beauty has lit up my whole world and His grace and His favor and His abundance has surrounded me like deep waters. Who could know the depths of these waters? I rest beside the rivers of life and my roots are drawn down into the depths of who He is and it fills my whole being with radiant light even in the midst of gross darkness. And despite the ravages of life my leaf has not withered and I have never hungered and His living waters is life to my thirsty soul even in a dry and thirsty land.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The Psalms, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

The sun that will never set

Posted by appolus on February 24, 2018

When the rainbow bursts into a thousand pieces
And showers down into my heart
And my soul lights up with the colors of heaven
And shines out boldly into the dark

When life and all its ways flood in
And the perpetual winter is here to stay
And spring is just some distant dream
We cannot rise but fall and pray

We know there’s a bright and morning star
That rises through the depths of winters loss
And the Balm of Gideon soothes our pain
Yet we know we shall never be the same again

And twilight echoes in the sky above
Cascading down in a shower of love
And the memories fade but linger yet
Like the setting of a sun that will never truly set.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

The sun that never really sets

Posted by appolus on February 22, 2018

It is devastating to lose a loved one. The word that comes to mind for me is “brutal.” It tears away at your heart. Its like losing a limb without the aid of anesthetic. If there were not a balm in Gilead then the winter of our loss would be perpetual and the spring would never come. Yet of course there is a bright and morning star that rises in our hearts after the long winter of our loss. Even still, we are never the same and we remember our loved ones like a setting sun that never quite sets.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

The wall is about to crumble

Posted by appolus on February 22, 2018

The wall is about to crumble!

There is a wall spoken of in Ezekiel 13:10-16. The wall is constructed upon false-hood and lies. Lying prophets who tell the people what they want to hear. They cry peace and prosperity where there is no peace, and their prosperity is the gold and silver of this world. Their gold and silver and jewels are truly wood, hay and stubble and it shall surely come to nothing when the Lord comes against this wall.They lie to people and tell them that God is at peace with them and that they can, no matter what, fall back upon His mercy and His grace and that He will sustain them in their time of trouble. They have no peace for they do not know Him and their gold is fools gold and will not buy them peace.

There are many who plaster this wall and they do so with ” untempered mortar.” Now, I laid bricks for over 25 years. In the beginning, when I was an apprentice, we went to a trade school. The trade school was inside and we built many beautiful structures. We built egg-shaped sewers and Gothic arches and so on as we perfected all the finer points of building bricks and stone. If you were to walk into the large room where we were hard at work, you would see some fine examples of brickwork. The untrained eye would not notice and really could not notice that the mortar between the bricks was only sand with a small amount of lime, it was untempered, it had no cement. When the project was finished it was simply and easily taken down and the material would be scraped off and used again. If it were outside, it would not last very long and if a storm or rain were to hit it, the structures would simply collapse on themselves as the mortar that held everything together had no integral strength.

This is the kind of wall that Ezekiel is talking about in Chapter 13. Christendom itself is just like this wall(not the Church). It has been constructed by false prophets and the mortar used to hold it all together is religiosity. It gives a beautiful appearance and it encompasses a stronghold, but the time is coming soon when the Lord Himself will come against this structure. The Lord Himself will cause a storm designed specifically to bring the structure down. This is just like Matthew 7:26 where the Lord talks about two houses. One is built upon a foundation of Truth, that is Jesus, and the other has no foundation at all, it is merely built on sand. Now, in the normal course of events no one would ever know what house had a foundation or which did not. Yet, when a storm comes and the rains of persecution pour down, in the end only one house will be left standing, the house that stands entirely upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

This storm is coming brothers and sisters. In fact the fore-winds have already begun to blow. There will be a flooding rain, great hailstones shall fall and a stormy wind shall tear it down. Tear what down and expose what? The great wall of religion and denominationalism shall soon be exposed as the birth pangs of persecution begin to intensify. God has always had a remnant of people who dwell outside the walls, outside the systems of men. They are witnesses who testify of the truth. Indeed, as Stephen says , God does not dwell in temples built by human hands. God’s kingdom dwells within the hearts of His children. His structures consist of living stones. These living stones together, are the temple of God.

This great storm of darkness that is descending upon the world is designed to leave only the true children of God standing, and by standing I mean never faltering, standing fast to the end , a prevailing, enduring and overcoming stand. That which is without the foundation of Jesus, which is constructed by un-tempered mortar will not stand. And by not standing I mean shall fall into compromise with the world.They shall not stand fast, they shall not endure and they shall not overcome. That un-tempered wall shall be no more when the climax of the storm comes, when Jesus Himself shall descend in all His glory with the saints and with a shout of glory and triumph. Those saints still alive after the final martyrs have been slaughtered shall arise and join Christ and His army in the air, that glorious army of saints who come with Christ and then every knee shall bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

The path before us

Posted by appolus on February 22, 2018

God will not keep a man on the right path, He will lay it before him and the man chooses. When he goes down the wrong path he will often be met with “success.” Men will tell him how wonderful he is and it all acts as confirmation, drawing him deeper down the wrong path. It may take six days, six months or six years or even a lifetime, but it is never to late to go back to where the axe fell, the fork in the road and take the path that God has laid before you. It is not where we start, it is where we finish.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »

What shall become of us?-Mark McCourt

Posted by appolus on February 18, 2018

What shall become of us?-Mark McCourt

Its time to put away superficial, fairy-floss Christianity! Yep I am talking about the one hour dry-cleaning-check-the-box-complete-with-girly-man-songs-and-fluffy-sermon-church-meetings kind of Christianity! It’s time to stop pretending that it is okay to go through the motions by having a form of Christianity that is so blended with the world that if some of us were arrested for being a christian they would have to let us go for lack of evidence! Many Christians have become so obsessed with keeping up appearances that they have fallen in love with Churchianity rather than Christ. They have forgotten that it was Christ who was nailed to a cross, by a godless world and who then told us to follow Him to our own cross. But most churchmen today have become so enamored by the world that they dare not offend it lest they too end of on a cross. And so the Christianity we are leaving behind for the next generation looks cool and sounds amazing but it lacks “teeth” and it has no fire and alas I fear – God has already departed much of it. We are leaving behind a “hip” church that has losts it’s way and lost much of it’s soul…filled with passionless clones who have been trained to no longer think for themselves.

They have forgotten that they are children of the Light and sons and daughters of the soon and coming King. They have become so accustomed to this world that their allegiance no longer lies fully with their Lord, but somewhere between darkness and light. A bland shade of grey.

So I ask myself this question tonight, “Mark have you too lost your passion or is there still a fire burning in your heart for truth and righteousness and is there still a desire to live fully for Christ, no matter the cost”?

With the world growing darker by the hour we must have no allusions that we can just lie still with our head in the sand and hope the darkness will pass over us. Satan is rising up and the abyss is opening wider. True Christianity and all that stands for freedom is under siege like never before and we had better not put our trust in men or money or even the church-house. We must trust, rely, depend on and be immersed in Christ and Christ alone! He is our ROCK, He is our FORTRESS, He is our STRONG TOWER and He is our ever present HELP in time of trouble!

That time of trouble will become so intense in the coming years that we will be glad that we turned aside from the soul-sucking-rat-race and sought after God with all of our heart. Not just for what we are enduring today, but for tomorrow and next year and for the next 10 or 20 years from now. And we must seek Gods help not just for ourselves but for the day when we will no longer be here and it will be our children and our grand children who will face the darkness alone. They too must be ready and they must be strong in the Lord! Like never before we must turn aside and if need be, our lives must take on a sense of loneliness and solitude where we are forced to dig wells of righteousness and strength for future generations. May God Himself empower and quicken us for what lies ahead.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »

Jesus, lover of my soul!

Posted by appolus on February 14, 2018

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
(Son 2:1-4)

On this day the world celebrates love ( in a crass commercial way) it is good to consider the lover of our souls. Who is it that measures out the oceans in the palm of His hand? And considers the nations as a drop in a bucket, it is He that sits upon the circle of the earth. He is high and lifted up yet He knows every hair of your head. He know your every thoughts and His thoughts towards you are more numerable than the sands of the sea. He loves you with a perfect love. How much? Look up to the cross, look up to the heavens and behold His love and His glory.

He is closer to you than a brother and He will never leave you nor forsake you. What love is this that knows everything about us, every thought , every word and every action yet still loves us and keeps us despite the knowing of it all. Such love is impossible for men and women but our Lord and God is above the ways of all men. Today and every day I thank you Lord Jesus for loving me. A love that changed and is always changing everything.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

The crime of spiritual abuse: One of the most dangerous ideas in decades

Posted by appolus on February 13, 2018

The crime of spiritual abuse: One of the most dangerous ideas in decades. The article below is a very important one, please take the time to read it, it is quite short. It speaks to a new category that the authorities are thinking about introducing, “Spiritual Abuse,” or SA for short. The implication if this were ever introduced would devastate Christians and Christian children specifically. Let me just say that I believe that this will be introduced and sooner rather than later. Just another sign that Jesus is at the door and the gates of hell have been pushed open wide…………………bro Frank

In a world of ‘safe spaces’ it appears that no space is safe. So it was with interest and a degree of concern that I heard of a new term about to be added to our legal vocabulary. As well as sex abuse, child abuse, racial abuse, hate crime abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse and domestic abuse, we now have ‘spiritual abuse’ (SA).

Organisations like the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) have been raising the profile of SA and seeking to get it recognised as a legal category. Surely that should be a good thing? Abuse is manipulation, bullying, exploitation and misuse of power. When that happens in religious circles then surely it should be dealt with? So why has the Evangelical Alliance produced a report that is highly critical of the term? …… read the complete article by David Robertson here………  https://theweeflea.com/2018/02/13/the-crime-of-spiritual-abuse-one-of-the-most-dangerous-ideas-in-decades/

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 5 Comments »

The vastness of it all.

Posted by appolus on February 12, 2018

The universe speaks to the vastness of God. When we think of the countless trillions of stars we are reminded in Isa 40 that God knows them all by name. If He knows every single star by name and every single sparrow that falls to the ground then it comes into clear view that He knows every single human being and every hair that is on their heads. When the Scripture tells us that His thoughts of us are more than the sands of the sea, when we consider the vastness of the universe and peer up into the night sky then this Scripture is easy to believe. Its the wonder of it all. The vastness of the universe and the glory of the infinitesimally small that makes up the human body. We stand in the midst of that and God stands outside of it. Imagine, if you will, a God that holds all of it in the palm of His hand.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

One Heart

Posted by appolus on February 8, 2018

It was one heart that formed the mountains
It was one heart that tamed the mighty seas
It was one heart that raised me back to life
Twas this one heart I found upon my knees

And with this one heart I am saved forever
And this one heart has opened up the door
This one heart laid the foundations of the world
And in this one heart I will dwell forever more

It was one heart that carved out the valleys
It was one heart that planted all the trees
It was one heart that formed the little babies
Twas this one heart I found upon my knees

And with this one heart I was born again forever
And this one heart will take me gently ore
This one heart created all the heavens
And in this one heart I will dwell forever more

This one heart belongs to God the Father
And the Blood flowed from Jesus Christ His Son
And by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit
We shall all stand together here as one

One heart, one soul, one mind, one Body
One purpose in everything we do
It is this one heart that holds it all together
And it is this one heart that will see us through

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

It will rage against the coming of the light.

Posted by appolus on February 6, 2018

It’s not good enough to come to the cross, one must come to the cross and die. The ultimate offense of the cross is death. Jesus said that whoever seeks to save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ would gain everlasting life. In Roman times, the one thing you knew if you saw a man with a cross was that the man was surely going to die and the dying would not be easy.

The message of the cross remains the same ” I bid you to come and die.” You cannot accept the benefits of the cross while refusing to die. In order to live eternally one has to die. It is a very rare thing to hear this message today. The message for the last few decades typically begins with “All you have to do.” This is not the gospel. See Jesus in the garden and see the agony. For us mere mortals the flesh will not go quietly into that good night, it will rage against the coming of the light.

It will demand to remain in the darkness and there it will make its stand. Salvation is a brutal bloody thing and the flesh must be found dead upon the brazen altar. It is the work of the cross that slays it and today Satan is still selling that old lie “surely you will not die.” Bow down and worship me, he says, and you will not need to die upon a cross. Will you die that you may live or will you live this day and bow down to the world. It must be one or the other. Cheap grace has given the illusion that there is a middle ground, there is not.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »

Till we all come in the unity of the faith.

Posted by appolus on February 4, 2018

In much of the church we are living with the triumph of form over substance. The evidence of that is the lack of depth of Christianity in our society. We have had many charlatans that have used the power of the media and the rules of entertainment to water down the message while promoting themselves. Three of four generations into an entertainment driven church we are left with a shallowness of showmanship that engages the ‘audience.” Tozer writes “The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.” I would argue that all across Christendom in the west we are seeing leaders who lead the people by providing entertainment.

Tragically, we have seen that as the world goes so goes the church. Of course it should be the exact opposite, yet here we are. You will hear excuses about staying relevant and keeping up with technology and so on. I personally have nothing against technology but when it becomes an integral part of the “show” on a Sunday morning then you know that the plot has been lost. Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. The cultural winds have simply taken a hold of the church and the church is being driven along by these winds towards what destination? What is the end for such a church? The complete amalgam of the world with the church. This is a tragedy. The church was supposed to be a counter-culture not a sub-culture.

Yet if there is an enemy that seeks to swallow up the church whole by means of swamping it with the world, he has miscalculated. We see in the secular world that given enough frustration the electorate eventually rebel against the establishment that has become corrupt. This last election cycle is a perfect example of rebellion against the establishment with men like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. If the world can react against the corruption they find in the system then even more so can good brothers and sisters in Christ. As always Satan will overplay his hand and brothers and sisters will simply leave the corrupted institutions behind. The more our enemy overplays his hand the more he drives saints together and actually helps the Scriptures come to pass. Jesus prophesied in John 17 that we should be one just as He and His Father are one. We shall see this come to pass.

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ……….And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:(Eph 4:4-13)

Brothers and sisters God is raising up apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers. Not the children of the system that we see today, but genuine saints whose primary goal is the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the Body until we all come into the unity of the faith. The unity of the faith is the work of God Himself through His Holy Spirit and the spirit of the world that has invaded the church will only drive the saints towards such a unity that will undoubtedly be forged in the fires of persecution. Pursue the substance of God with all of your heart and soul and mind and do not be distracted by shiny things that make a lot of noise and attract attention. The substance of God will triumph over the form of man.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »

Too marvelous for words

Posted by appolus on January 31, 2018

Jer 10:6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

Isa 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Exo 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

“You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words.” Is He not brothers and sisters? Who is like unto Him, beautiful and holy, high and lifted up, wrapped in light and beyond what our minds can even imagine. Yet, somehow, by the power of His Spirit and the humility of our God He stepped down from glory. He was, God among us and we beheld His glory and His majesty and even when He returned from whence He had come He did not leave us alone, He sent the Holy Spirit of the living God to dwell in the very heart of us that we would know what in the natural cannot be known. All praise belongs to you my King and my Lord. Let the name of Jesus be lifted up and glorified before a dying world that has plunged into gross darkness. Let the light that is in us, called Jesus, shine out all the more in this day.

Rom 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth

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Wealth often leads us away from Jesus

Posted by appolus on January 30, 2018

The economy is doing really well across all the different measurements, whether that be unemployment ( the lowest since the 90s) or the stock market ( records being broke daily) house prices are way up and consumer confidence is high. Growth is strong and is somewhere between 3 and 4% a quarter. I shared with many of the saints a number of years ago that I believed that in the end times the economy would be booming. It’s one of the few things I have disagreed with bro David Wilkerson on. Here is why. A booming country is a proud country. In the history of Israel they ran into more problems when everything was going well because they let their need for God slip away and their confidence was in their own strength and power. So, economic prosperity aids and abets the great falling away. Prosperity intensifies the choice the saints will have to make when it cones to the mark. The more people have, the more they have to lose. If you have nothing then it would make your decision somewhat easier, but, if like the rich young ruler, the more you have the more difficult it is to give it all up. I believe that most of the saints at least in the West but also in places like China and south Korea will be prosperous when the time comes to make the choice. History has shown that when Satan can’t beat you, he attempts to buy you. So, the more the saints have to lose as persecution rises, the more they will be tempted to compromise their core values and beliefs in order to hold onto their status in the world.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, prosperity gospel, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »

To die, yet to live

Posted by appolus on January 26, 2018

The living Jesus empowers us to die. The cross is the symbol of sacrifice and death. To live for Him is to die to ourselves and the world. In the Spiritual we came, we died and we rose again as a new creature in Christ. As we move towards and become like Jesus, we die to ourselves. And so there is an important intertwining of dying to ourselves and living the resurrected life. It is the heads and the tails of the same coin.

If you focus on just one aspect to the detriment of the other, you will become imbalanced in your walk. We surely must pick up our cross daily. It is important to realize that this will produce an abundant spiritual life in Christ and while you may die to the flesh internally, the world should see your joy expressed externally and wonder and marvel how such a thing could be. This is pleasing to God.

The proof of our new life , our resurrection from the dead, our authentic faith is not a large house or a $2000 suit or a prosperous life in this world, these things prove nothing in the Spiritual. The proof of our faith is how we react to carrying our cross. In the midst of death to ourselves does the love of Jesus pour forth? Do we minister to others when we ourselves are in the midst of trial and testings? Have we found the secret of being content in every situation?

The cross does not lie. There is no hypocrisy on the cross. Tozer said that you knew one thing about a man carrying a cross out of the city, you knew he was not coming back. The cross signifies death to self and death to the world. Its only by taking up our cross that we can crucify the flesh. The flesh wars against the Spirit. The flesh must die, it dies only upon the cross, it thrives on indulgence.

The walk of the cross is a lonely walk. Yet in every generation, across denominational lines, brothers and sisters will be called out. They will know each other when they meet. They will be people who have rejected the “norm.” They will be a people who are seeking a deeper walk with Jesus. While the crowd run after the latest craze and those that tickle their ears, these people will find themselves on an ancient narrow path.

This path begins at Calvary and ends at the throne. It is a very difficult and lonely path but all the saints who have come before you have walked this very path. Be encouraged today saints, God has seen and sees the afflictions of His people. He has not left us as orphans, we have the Holy Spirit who can take us to a place that Jesus has prepared for us. He is our high tower and the righteous can run into it and be safe.

There is a place beneath His ”wings,” that is ours. He has given us ” wings,” in the Spiritual so that we can fly to this place. And in this prepared place we can discover joy where there should be no joy. We can discover peace where there should be no peace. We can discover love where hate should be. We can be fed although a famine has overtaken the land. He is our fountain in a land that is dry and dusty, in a land where there is no water.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »

For the day that Christ was born

Posted by appolus on January 24, 2018

Daniel slept in the lion’s den
Peter slept in a prison
Jesus slept in the midst of a storm
Aren’t you glad that He has risen

Come lie down in your lion’s den
Sleep if you are in prison
Rest your head in the midst of the storm
For by His Blood you are surely forgiven

It flows when there is no way ahead
It flows when all seems lost
It flows when you are overcome
It flows by a terrible cost

Look up and see the price He paid
Look full upon Calvary’s hill
Then know that when there’s no way ahead
Just stand, covered, and be still

Be still and see the glory of our God
Be still and stand amazed
Sing with all your heart before heavens throne
Lift you voice and let Him be praised

And as you praise in the lion’s den
You will rest in the midst of the storm
You will thank our God in heaven above
For the day that Christ was born.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, The Psalms, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »

We must speak

Posted by appolus on January 24, 2018

The lives that we lead as Christians cannot be a contradiction to what we share or preach or teach. There must be a wonderful unity in what we say and how we live, there is real power in that. I think of 1 Cor 13 where Paul clearly tells us that we can know all mysteries and even give our bodies to be burned but if we don’t have love, what do we have? Love, the love of God, is central to who we are. We cannot separate this love from what we share. In order to walk with the power of the Holy Spirit we must be lovers of God and lovers of what He loves. This is no natural love, it is supernatural. Very few Christians will disagree with what I just wrote but I have discovered that many will use this kind of love as an excuse not to say anything at all. The line goes something like this ” I am just loving them into the Kingdom.” Yet the Gospel must be preached. We cannot just be witnesses with our lives, although it starts there, we must be about our Fathers business. Too often people are silent not because they want to win souls by the life’s that they lead, but because they are too afraid to speak up and then simply spiritualize their silence.

Jesus, we would all agree, loved with a perfect love. Yet every single word that came out of His mouth also came with a challenge. His word had to be acted upon. He loves the woman who was thrown down at His feet and did not condemn her, but He told her to go and sin no more. He loved the woman at the well but did not hesitate to speak of her many husbands. He was never afraid to speak the truth but He always spoke it with love. It is the combination of truth and love that breaks the chains of bondage. It is the combination of truth and love that sets the prisoner free. When we speak to the lost we must not be afraid to speak the truth that is applicable in their own lives. The truth spoken in love will challenge the heart of the hearer to its very foundations. They will be stabbed in the heart no doubt. They may accept what you say with gladness, humble themselves and seek out the giver of life or they may react with great anger and never want to speak to you again. Speak as the Holy Spirit leads you and do not remain silent when you hear His voice. Choose rather to offend men than to offend a Holy God. Your friendship with someone who is lost will not save them. You can and should walk in holiness but a holiness that does not challenge the lost is something that is self-indulgent. Jesus walked in Holiness and He spoke the truth in love, we must do the same otherwise our love is not the love of God but merely something worldly that does not carry the power of God. It is the love of God that changes men and women.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »